


In Which Abe Takaya's Gift Leads to Accidentally Getting Confessed To

by TimelessWriting



Category: Ookiku Furikabutte | Big Windup!
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Implied Poly Relationships, Implied Relationships, M/M, Multi, Slow Burn, but I'll still tag it as such, im pretty sure i failed, in which i attempt to write romance and slow burn, mentioned Kanou Shuugo, oofuri secret santa 2k15
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-26
Updated: 2015-12-26
Packaged: 2018-05-09 12:09:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5539436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TimelessWriting/pseuds/TimelessWriting
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Abe's gift for the secret santa leads to him and Haruna going on a date. He swears it's not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Which Abe Takaya's Gift Leads to Accidentally Getting Confessed To

**Author's Note:**

> Whooooo boy. It's 1 am and i finally finished this. This is my attempt at HaruAbe and romance and FLUFF, which I have pretty much never really done before. All I usually do is angst. So I really hope this meets @yukiranine on tumblr's expectations, because I'm their secret santa! I hope I wrote Abe and Haruna well enough!

It was quiet. The trees were bare of any leaves, replaced instead with as much snow as the plant could hold before giving in. The street was empty of any cars, everyone having decided it was a better idea to hole up inside their houses instead of going out and bear the cold that was brought by the recent snowfall. The lights decorating the houses seemed to glitter in the fading winter daylight.

In the midst of what could almost be considered a winter wonderland, Takaya Abe stepped out of his car, shivering in his coat and scarf. In his hands he clutched an unmarked light blue envelope. He slowly but surely shuffled his way across the street to the only house on the street that seemed to be alive at this time.

He hesitated ringing the doorbell, fiddling with the envelope in his hands as he mentally prepared himself for what he would undoubtedly end up dealing with inside. He didn’t hate it though. Even though they were rowdy, the people inside were his friends and he appreciated them no matter how they were. He always ended up having a good time at their small parties, and this time would be no different.

At least, that’s what he thought until Tajima threw open the door with vigor, a wide grin on his face (although really, when wasn’t there?). That wasn’t what put a damper in his mood though. What had done _that_ was what he had seen _behind_ Tajima. Standing near the entryway to the living room was Haruna Motoki, grinning as he joyfully chatted with Mihashi.

At the very least, Abe didn’t hate Haruna anymore. He had gotten over that back in high school, when Haruna had formally apologized for his middle school self’s actions. Nowadays, he sort of just left a bitter taste in Abe’s mouth. But that was to be expected. How do you just forgive and forget what your middle school teammates do to you?

Abe didn’t know how Mihashi did it.

“Who invited _him?”_ He inquired, a slight frown dominating his face as he shuffled his shoes off. “I thought it was just going to be our team.”

He glanced up in surprise when Hanai replied from behind Tajima, sipping a drink from his mug. “Mihashi asked him to come. He seemed excited to have him over and nobody had a problem with it, so we told him he could.”

Tajima grinned up at him, adding his own commentary when he glanced back down at Abe. “Mihashi and I wanted to invite Shuu-chan, but he said he wasn’t going to be in town until tomorrow. Mihashi was really upset until Shuu-chan consoled him and told him he should invite Haruna instead!” The pitch of his voice changed as he attempted to mimic one of his partners. “Sorry, Ren. I promise we’ll spend all of Christmas Day together. Why don’t you invite Haruna instead? You two have gotten close recently.”

Abe nodded in understanding. He supposed that made sense. Tajima and Kanou had been with Mihashi since the latter half of their second year; they were probably the ones who knew the shy pitcher the best. It would only make sense that they would know Mihashi wanted to spend more time with Haruna.

That didn’t mean _he_ wanted to though. His most prominent memories of the pitcher were the awful ones of junior high. Not even the decent ones from their interactions during high school could erase those. He sort of felt bad that everyone but him was able to get over it, but it was true and he wasn’t going to deny it. Only bad things would come out of doing that.

Tajima didn’t let him wallow in his thoughts for very long.

“Oh!” He exclaimed, an excited gleam in his eyes. “Is that the gift you brought? Nice! Now we can start!”

He snatched the envelope out of Abe’s hands and took off down the hall, bursting into the living room where everyone was out and yelling, “Abe is here! We can start the gift exchange now! Come on, come on! Let’s do this!”

Abe glanced helplessly at Hanai, who simply shrugged and headed towards the ring of people sitting haphazardly around a small pile of presents, in which Abe’s envelope was nowhere to see. No doubt it had been covered up by the larger presents.

One by one they went around the circle of people, each person picking one of the plainly wrapped gifts and revealing it to everyone. Abe got a pair of pajamas with a teddy bear print, but he wasn’t complaining. They were practical. It was so no surprise however, that Tajima (who had been the one to buy that gift) and Haruna had the time of their lives imagining him wearing it and laughing.

It eventually got around to Haruna, who simply grabbed the first thing he saw, no hesitance, no deliberation.

Everyone waited with baited breath as he slowly tore the envelope open, baiting everyone with dramatics. Who knew what would be in it?

Abe’s eyes widened in horror.

A little packet of small, stapled together slips of paper was all that fell out when Haruna tilted it over onto his lap, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

He picked it up, slowly reading the neat print so that everyone could hear. “Coupon… book?”

Everyone looked at Abe, and he averted his eyes, ears tinged red. Was it really that lame?

It was quiet and Tajima broke it with his giggles, which soon developed into full on cackling. The rest of the room soon followed with their own poorly stifled laughter, and Abe was left to stew in his own embarrassment.

Tajima tried to calm down so he could say something, only to end up snorting and laughing harder. It was like a domino effect, and it only caused everyone to laugh louder and embarrass Abe more.

“S-seriously, Abe?” Tajima managed to get out between breathless laughs. “That's like–like something a elementary school kid–an elementary school kid would make!” He choked and Mihashi frantically hit his back until he was ok again. “My niece gave me one of those for my birthday!”

Abe flushed and flinched in surprise when Haruna slung an arm around him, airily reassuring him, “It’s ok, Takaya! I’ll make sure to cash these in later!”

Abe didn’t really think Haruna would actually _do_ it, even if he had promised to. But of course, Haruna defied his expectations as usual and so now they were sitting across from each other at a restaurant.

_Joy._

_******_

“Here–” Haruna slid a paper across the table, one of the papers that were bound to be torn from the packet in the future. This one said “one free meal”. “I’ll use this one first.” There was that annoying grin of his on his face, and Abe scowled as he snatched it off the table and shoved it into his jacket pocket. He has never considered that _Haruna_ would be the one to get his gift, of all people. Of course, he had never considered that Haruna would be at the party either, so technically there was no way he could have know.

Either way, if he had known, he would have brought something else as a gift.

“Don’t get me wrong; you weren’t the one who was supposed to be getting that coupon book,” He blurted out. Technically he wasn’t lying… He hadn’t cared who had gotten it, but Haruna certainly was not near the top of the list. Or on the list at all.

Haruna rolled his eyes.

“Thanks, I feel so honored. Though really, Takaya? A coupon book?” He raised an eyebrow and gave a pointed look at the male sitting across from him, snickering as they shifted around in embarrassment.

“Shut up,” Abe retorted, avoiding eye contact. “My old teammates would have made full use of it. Not that you would know.”

Haruna mock cringed and whined in a tone of faux hurt, “Ouch. That hurts, Takaya. Who knows, maybe I do know stuff about your friends? Huh? What do you say to that?”

Abe scoffed. “As if.”

“Come on! I do!” He insisted. “Mihashi tells me all about you guys! He really likes all of you. You're almost all he ever talks about, and he won't stop once you get him started. He's surprisingly talkative for how shy he is.”

Abe frowned. He didn't like the sound of that.

“What are you trying to say? That he's annoying?”

“No! I’d never!” He exclaimed, eyes wide. His hands moved around dramatically in attempt to convey his honesty. “Mihashi would never annoy me. He's honestly kind of cute, in that little brother kind of way.”

He leaned forward onto the table, and Abe began to get even more awkward than before. There was a glint in his eyes that Abe didn't like one bit.

“There is _one_ topic he does talk about more than others though. Want to guess?”

“... Pitching?” It wasn't much a long shot, if one at all. It was something Mihashi tended to talk about without reign, but somehow he got the feeling that that wasn't what Haruna meant.

Haruna blew out a breath that sounded like he was trying to repress a laugh, and Abe sent him a halfhearted glare.

“Sorry, sorry. No, that's not it, but he does talk about it an awful lot. He talks about _you_.”

Abe furrowed his eyebrows. “Me?”

“Yeah!” Haruna nodded, ticking off the different events on his fingers as he mentioned them. “Let’s see… like that one time when you tried to make friendship chocolates for everyone on Valentine’s Day but put too much salt in them; when you called Hanai mom; when you were lost a bet and had to walk around for a week with bows and hair clips in your hair; when you accidentally forwarded your baby, elementary, and junior high pictures to the whole team instead of your mom–”

“That's _enough_!” Abe hissed, nearly launching himself over the table in attempt to slam his hands over Haruna’s mouth. How did Mihashi _remember_ all that?! He was mortified. “I get it!”

Haruna blinked up at him, mouth still covered my Abe’s hands, and for a moment they just looked at each other, neither of them saying anything. Abe wanted to look away, he really did, but he just couldn’t bring himself to break eye contact. There was something in Haruna’s eyes that seemed to captivate him, and he didn’t know what it was. But he did know that as long as it was there, he wouldn’t be able to stop.

Thankfully, it was Haruna who broke the small, seemingly unimportant connection they had just had. He reached up the clasp a hand around Abe’s wrist–Abe couldn’t help but think that his wrist seemed tiny when Haruna held it _–_ pulling the hands away from his mouth before letting go so that Abe could sit back down again.

“Ok, ok. I get it; you didn’t have to go that far. I would have stopped if you asked me to…” He grumbled, sending Abe a pointed look. “I never noticed before though, but when Mihashi showed me your high school pictures, you’re pretty good-looking. Even now.”

Abe gaped at him. Where was all this coming from?

Haruna only response was a grin, and finishing off with, “You were pretty cute when you were embarrassed right now too. Who knows? I think I might just be falling for you, Takaya!”

Abe didn’t think of himself as the bashful type–he didn’t think _anyone_ did–but never had he been more thankful for the waiter arriving to take their order. Now he had an excuse to hide his embarrassed blush behind the menu.

“Shut up and order. It’s on me, so get whatever you want.”

And although Abe couldn’t see it, Haruna grinned. He supposed that was the best thing he was going to get out of a flustered Takaya, who he was pretty sure has realized that he had just confessed.


End file.
